Sunday, 26 July 2015

In late 2001 I snapped the anterior
crusciate ligament in my left knee. I was sparring with a kickboxing instructor
named Bertram who was basically kicking my ass. When I tried a roundhouse
kick, I kept my entire left foot on the
floor instead of balancing on the ball of it, and the strain snapped the ACL.
There was a "crunch" noise and I signalled to Bertram to stop beating
me, then hobbled off the mat in order to soothe my sore appendage.

Next day the knee was horrendously
tender and swollen to the size of a small grapefruit. I didn't know what was
wrong and simply waited for the swelling to go down and then strapped the leg
up and carried on. Months later I was told that I had almost certainly snapped
the ACL and while I didn't think much of it, as the knee was 'manageable' and
the pain almost non-existent, I found out in 2004 that this was a much bigger
deal than I'd imagined.

I applied for the City of London
police Special Constabulary (volunteer cops) and was rejected on medical grounds
due to declaring the knee injury. The force medical officer was polite and to
the point, and said that if I'd waited to apply in 2005 it wouldn't matter as
new laws were coming in that would make it wrong for them to reject me on these
grounds. However...now the old rules applied and she reluctantly had to say no
to my application. I asked if I could be allowed an appeal, if I could get the
knee repaired. She said yes.

So I went back to the doctor and
began the long process of consultation, MRI scan and visits to a specialist.
After several months I was booked in for an operation and spent the night in a
hospital bed, in preparation for my early morning op, kept awake by two old men
squabbling in the adjacent beds. Morning came and the anaesthetist arrived to
prep me for my time under the scalpel. Then he told me to put on a backless
gown and wait. An hour or so later the consultant surgeon arrived (a man I had
only glimpsed from afar up to this point and had always been seen by his underlings).
He breezily asked me to swing my legs up on the bed. I'd had the foresight to
keep my undies on, despite being told not to, which was a good job as he was
with two junior, female doctors. To make matters worse, one was very pretty. He
then proceeded to twist and manipulate my lower leg, regularly asking
"Does this hurt?" When he realised it didn't he then said "Leg's
healthy. You don't need the operation. You can go home."

Overjoyed, I sped home and sent the
forms off to the COLP medical officer who then accepted me as healthy, I got
interviewed, accepted and joined in October 2004

However....

It turned out that far from what I
naively believed had been a case of 'self healing', the leg muscles around my
knees had simply grown bigger due to the amount of cycling I was regularly
doing in London. The ACL was still
broken but, like having a strong set of core muscles in your belly, all that
exercise meant that the knees were now having the majority of the strain on the
surviving ligament, dealt with by the increase in muscle.

Years later and the knee still
twinged. Like tectonic plates grinding into each other, the knee cap would rub
into other bits and acidic, sharp pain would shoot up my leg. I was rejected by
both the Territorial Army and the RAF Reservists on my paper applications,
without even being seen, solely due to the ACL damage. Both said "Get it
repaired, then reapply after 18 months."

In Krav training I would have to
wear not one but two knee supports on that leg and also take a shit load of
painkillers after gradings, due to the soreness and swelling after 4 hours of
beasting, with at least 30 minutes of full on sparring to top it all off. I
couldn't sit on my heels when I knelt down. I was advised in the strongest
possible terms by a knee specialist that I NOT go jogging. The impact would
cause inflammation to the knee and put me back. Cycling was fine but running,
which I love, was out.

This year I decided what I really
want to do is be fully fit again. I want to run, jump and twist without fear of
having to open the Ibuprofen. I want to grade in Krav Maga without fearing that
someone will boot me in the kneecap and send me howling to the floor. I want
above all to be a Fast Defence instructor with Wayne Hubball in 2016.

I went for another MRI scan on my
knee a few months ago after referral from my local doctor. I then got to WarwickHospital to see a consultant. They
put me on a waiting list and last week told me that my operation to repair the
ACL will happen on the 25th of August
2015. Convalescence time is 6 months, meaning no Krav for that
entire time.

This dictates that I will miss both
chances to retest my P5 exam in October and December. I will miss shit loads of
training and also the seminars run nationally and by my own club Krav MagaMidlands. Guys who are currently P3 will be probably taking their P5 the same
time as me. Guys who are currently P4 could well be taking G1.

But....the light at the end of the
tunnel is that I will come back fitter, healthier and with more endurance.
Things I cannot do now without pain and physical instability will be much
easier to perform. I will be able to fight without the paranoia of wondering if
my knee will get hurt during the kicks and punches, takedowns and ground work.

It's an investment and one I wish
I'd taken a long time ago

Short term gain gives short term
pleasure. One thing Krav Maga has taught me is that sometimes you need to be
patient and put your ego and desires to one side in order to be all you can be.

Wednesday, 15 July 2015

After a great time with Dimitris
and his club in Chania, Crete on 24th June I was more than keen to go back for
another session. The turmoil of the possible Grexit from Europe
had been going on for a few weeks but despite the gloomy pessimism on Facebook
the only obvious sign of impending isolation from the Eurozone was huge queues
of anxious tourists at the cash points.

I came back 4 days before the end
of my holiday and caught a lift with Manolis, a former Brit who'd moved to Crete
as a child. A lot of the guys were already there warming up as we arrived and
Dimitris was enthusiastic, shaking my hand and telling me all about his time doing the KMG Combat Mindset & Mental Conditioning Course in Israel the previous week. The youngest
member of the club Mirto was celebrating her 17th birthday and had decided to train anyway. Emmanouhl, another practitioner also had his birthday so there were lots of cakes and soda laid out ready for
afterwards, a sight for sore eyes and something to look forward to, for any practitioner after a heavy session.

After the last time where I had
excruciating muscle cramps for most of the night following the training, I had
taken advice from people I trust, and glugged down about 3 litres of water and
eaten well during the day. Apparently it's not replenishment after training
that counts but what you put in beforehand. Your body loses vital fluids and
replacement takes time. The temperature in the gym was again around the 30
degrees Celsius mark and I had no desire to be doing the Ministry of Silly
Walks around my hotel room while stifling screams at 4am again.

We warmed up with the usual stretches
and running then moved on to the introductions on my behalf to the club members
who weren't there last time. We did some striking work on the pads and bags
around the walls of the gym and then we shifted to a work through of the
techniques used to escape from choke holds. This proved useful and at Krav Maga
Midlands back home, I had done a lot of this drilling. After various methods
were gone through Dimitris then demonstrated one I hadn't seen before. He got a
student to choke him with his head up close and no room to manoeuvre, the
attacker's body pressed up against him. He then grabbed the guys head and mimed
twisting it to the side. This would hurt like hell in a real situation and when
I was asked for my feedback I pointed out that the technique I'd been taught
was to lower your body weight, adjust your stance to balance and then force the
assailant's head backwards, preferably while thumbing their eye sockets.
Dimitris agreed that this was the established technique but added that this
method was for if the person had got too close for you to be able to
effectively utilise that defence.

After my misplaced machismo over
water breaks last time I made certain I was hydrated throughout the class and
got through 2 bottles by the time it was over.

Afterwards we had a small party at
the club for Mirto and Manolis before heading out to a taverna for dinner. This was
a really nice way to round off the training and I had a good chat with Dimitris
and club member Lefteris who had given me a lift to the restaurant. Dimitris
hadn't heard of Fast Defence and was intrigued by the video I showed him of the
Adrenaline 2 event in June. He quickly got in touch with Wayne Hubball via
Facebook with a view to finding out more. I suggested that next summer some
more guys from KMM come over to train with him and he was more than up for it.

After a lovely Greek dinner including a huge steak (not to mention a good few glasses of cold beer) we said goodbye
and I headed back to my hotel.

Really great time on the two
sessions and it was a privilege to see another country's KMG club and to train
with these guys. Can't wait to go back again and my thanks to Dimitris and all
the guys at KMC who made this such a great experience.